CONTENTS:
Context - This page was sent to 150-200 embassies in Washington D.C. one year prior to the advent of Corona Virus.
Pursuit of Happiness
Projects
A Letter to Xi Jinping
Context:
Societal Pressure-Cookers:
If the valve in a pressure cooker is blocked, the cooker will blow up if heated. Likewise: From 1770 to 1918, the pressure of demands for individual rights blew up the (dominance of) monarchies: American War of Independence (Revolutionary War), French Revolution, World War I. Before these full explosions, however, there always takes place a period of
Societal Decay:
The 1776 American Declaration of Independence contains the phrase:
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness:
Life and Liberty can be guaranteed by a suitably constructed government, Happiness not. But what does it help if people are alive and free, but miserable?
When the pressure in a cooker builds up, its material starts to weaken, Likewise: If unhappiness in a society builds up, society starts to fall apart: Drug abuse, mass shootings, crimes, inefficient institutions, increasing ignorance, cynicism, missing frankness, distrust, thinking in the box, high stress levels, attention-deficit, hyperactivity, depression, mood swings, anger, societal discord, and so on.
Happiness:
Its pursuit is hard, but good work. You will not become happy by getting drunk or high or just reading through this website. This site outlines a program. The video page STORIES and the testimonial page contain some of its results.
Efficiency:
Happiness and (global) efficiency are synonymous. Happy people are efficient, just as happy cows give more milk. To be efficient, you need to mobilize your unconscious mind. Our conscious mind gets too easily confused and misguided. To mobilize your unconscious mind, you need to clean yourself from ideologies by using your critical thinking (informal logic).
Ideologies:
You need to clean yourself from ideologies for two reasons. The first is societal: You might start fighting with people, who hold different convictions, instead of working with them. The second is psychological: Your unconscious mind will reject the question you are asking if the question is infused with an ideology. Your unconscious mind will consider it babbling.
2. Pursuit of Happiness
HAPPINESS
Happiness is dependent on the fulfillment of needs and the absence of pain. It is like a system check before a plane takes off. If all the components are in order, the overall evaluation is GO! In the case of humans, this means HAPPINESS.
SCIENCE
We have two periods: the classical (up to 1900) and the modern. During the classical period, pure mathematics and applied mathematics (physics, surveying, navigation, astronomy) were taught to the general public, advancing their reasoning skills. Mathematics was just like an exercise machine, not important in itself. What was crucial was the result of the exercise, namely mental fitness, which could be applied to other areas. Modern mathematics is useless in this regard. Mathematics now uses an artificial logic (formal, mathematical, or symbolic logic), which is good for computers, but not for humans. In addition, modern mathematics is empty in comparison to classical mathematics. It has lost its value as a mental exercise machine.
EVERYDAY LIFE
Science teaches generalities. Our life, however, is composed of highly specific events. The mental fitness acquired through classical mathematics can be used to deal with the singular issues and circumstances of everyday life.
IDEOLOGIES
If one person has one ideology (worldview, “personality”) and the second person a conflicting one and these two people start talking to each other, then the communication will turn into a fight. Communication is only possible if you question your ideology and replace it by the informal logic of classical mathematics.
THE CONSCIOUS AND THE UNCONSCIOUS MIND
The conscious mind is good for relatively simple things. It can, for example, be used for cleaning up the solutions created by the unconscious mind. The conscious mind cannot deal with the complex, ever-changing issues of everyday life. For this, we need the unconscious mind. The unconscious mind needs input that is clear, simple, and free from ideology to come up with solutions.
3. Projects
1. WEBSITE
To avoid the impression that what I am talking about is just theoretical babbling, I want to report some projects of mine and illustrate them with examples. These might have the potential to encourage your own projects. This website is written with exactly this intention. I am not out for “fame” or money. I have often walked away from both in order to do something meaningful.
2. APPLIED LOGIC
a) Finding Positives
In my childhood, I grew up in a country butcher-shop. I loved animals and still do. Bubi, the cat on the home-page, is a dear friend of mine. In this butcher shop, the boss of which was my step-grandfather, a crazy cowardly brute, animals were killed and processed. Cows and calves went quietly to their deaths, whereas the pigs screamed at the top of their lungs until the shots rang out. Then their throats were cut. When they had bled out, their heads were cut off and their intestines removed. They were skinned and cleft in half after being hanged on hooks.
At the age of seven, I started to have this recurring nightmare: Now I was processed like an animal. I was afraid to fall asleep. I inevitably did, however. This torture went on for weeks until I finally had enough:“What is the problem, Bubi (meaning myself, namely LITTLE BOY)? When you experience this, you think it’s really happening. However, you are only dreaming. So, how can you find out? Actually, when this happens to you, it means that you are just dreaming. PEOPLE, UNLIKE ANIMALS, ARE NOT BUTCHERED THIS WAY IN REALITY. So, when you are butchered, you can tell yourself that you are dreaming and then open your eyes.” This worked beautifully. When it happened again, I told myself that I was just dreaming, even went along with the experience for a while, until the dream became too much for my nerves, and then opened my eyes. After a few times, the dream disappeared.
b) Avoiding Negatives
We sometimes meet people, who are takers and never givers. They are like vampires or locusts. They exude an overpowering air of superiority and competence. Individuals and businesses should learn how to alert themselves in spite of—actually BECAUSE OF—their intoxicating impression management.
3. MATHEMATICS
When you read through this website, you will get the impression that I am a math-freak and, therefore, consider mathematics a cure-all. WRONG! I had not only math-anxiety, but math-panic. Similar to drinking a repulsive, but healing potion, I took in mathematics, first the modern and then the classical one, to distill from it critical thinking (informal and practical logic).
4. UNCONSCIOUS MIND
a) Test of Existence
I always had the impression that there was something guiding myself, sometimes against my conscious intentions. To find out whether there was an unconscious mind, I took an advanced doctoral course in a field, which was totally alien to me and required a lot of technical prerequisites, none of which I had. The professor, an international expert, could have talked Marsian. I did not understand a word, which was quite painful. I just listened with my stomach. After weeks of suffering through the class sessions and related homework, I sometimes let out a verbal burp, not thinking about it before. The professor looked at me and said:“Gerhard, this is brilliant!” I had no idea why this had been brilliant, barely understood what I just had said. At the end of the class, the professor offered me an assistantship, which I did not take. I had had enough of this field of study.
b) Language Learning
I once had read all the books in English on a guy called Alberoni (1664- 1752). The only remaining books were in Italian, which I did not understand. I bought three used books on Italian: A thick textbook, a book on grammar, and a vocabulary book. I read through them in about two months, again listening with my stomach, not really learning it. Then I could understand about 90% of the following books:
Pietro Castagnoli: Il Cardinale Giulio Alberoni (3 volumes, Piacenza & Roma, 1929-1932)
Giovanni Felice Rossi: Cento Studi Sul Cardinale Alberoni Con Altri Specialisti Internationali (4 thick volumes, Piacenza, Collegio Alberoni, MCMLXXVIII).
c) Sharing Reasoning Skills
When I am talking to people, I am thinking aloud, spontaneously, without previous deliberation. This procedure allows them to check my reasoning, instills trust, and shares reasoning. And, additionally, the process is fun.5. REALISTIC PSYCHOLOGY
a) Psychological Theories
A simple behavior such as crying can have many reasons: Sadness, happiness, hormones, manipulation, anger, onions, illness, or probably some other unknown “factors.” How do you find out which is the true one? You have to discover the context, in which the behavior occurs. However, contexts change with places, cultures, over history, and individuals. There cannot be any theories, which incorporate all these contexts. We have to think on our own, “deeply,” that is, use our unconscious minds.
b) “Biographies”
I gave you a description of the books on Alberoni to indicate the lower magnitude of the amount of data necessary to get a somewhat correct picture of an individual biography. If you sit with a live person, however, the amount data (and potential validity) is much larger and can be only absorbed (and established) by your unconscious mind-- and in cooperation with the other person. To limit the complexity, psychological theories are used and validity is lost.
6. MEDICAL ISSUES
a) Others
Clients never came to me to address their medical issues. However, sometimes these problems came up. To my surprise, spontaneous self- healing of wounds and illnesses occurred, which their medical treatment alone was insufficient to cure. When “mental” issues were resolved, energy was freed to take care of the medical problems. A part of the issues was mental avoidance and the belief that “psychology” could do nothing (see the video THE TOULMIN ARGUMENT on the page STORIES).
b) Myself
The following is to demonstrate what I mean with avoidance and how to get rid of it. The basis of avoidance is anxiety. We become afraid if something is wrong with us medically and move away from it mentally.
Each spring, I had a certain feeling in my throat and did not look at it. After some time, the feeling turned into pain. I could neither talk nor swallow. Strep throat! Antibiotics! No money for two weeks! This occurred for years. However, when a had cancelled a client because I had this undefined, but familiar feeling again, I told myself THIS IS IT! NOT AGAIN! So, I looked at this feeling, which was behind a cloud, into which I went, dissolving it. The perception became clearer and clearer. No so-called healing thoughts! Pure and direct perception only. I found the place of the feeling. It was located in the middle of the left side of my throat. Then: SURPRISE! A spotlight was switched on that covered the location. The light was stationary at first for a while. Then: SURPRISE AGAIN! It started moving up my throat to my left ear, stayed there for a while, moved slowly down until it reached my chest, went to its right side, slowly up a way into my throat, stayed there, and then CLICK switched off. I avoided strep throat this time and never got it again.
7. THE ONLY WAY TO GET HAPPINESS
It will not happen without you. It is up to you now.
I am done with my work.
4. A Letter to Xi Jinping
International Institute for Critical Thinking Inc.
November 28, 2021
Xi Jinping
President of the People’s Republic of China
`Dear Mr. President,
My whole life I have thought about how mankind can achieve stability. Here are the results:
STABILITY
Monarchies are not stable since they are too dependent on the personalities of the monarchs.
Democracies are not stable because they are governed by special interests.
Fascist governments are not stable because they are irrational.
Communist governments seem to be unstable, too, e.g., Soviet Union, Albania.
REASONS
Communist governments come to power through revolutions (wars).
The leaders in war become the leaders in peace. In the case of the Soviet Union and Albania, the leaders continued the war—not only against external enemies, but also against their own populations, making the latter quite unhappy.
The goal of a communist revolution is the happiness of the people. If this happiness were achieved, the communist government would also be stable because HAPPY PEOPLE DO NOT MAKE TROUBLE.
HAPPINESS
Before take-off, a pilot will make a security check of the plane. If all systems are in order, the plane is ready for take-off.
A person is happy if all her/his systems are working properly.
To find out why the systems in a human being are not working properly, let us look at a computer. When it is new, it is just working fine. Its central processing unit (CPU) can secure the cooperation of other subsystems optimally. Over time, this relationship deteriorates because the computer becomes filled with garbage. Programs are needed to free the CPU again.
People make themselves unhappy because they act on silly ideas and hurt themselves or others. These silly ideas need to be cleaned out by the individual. It is done by logical reasoning. Logical reasoning can be derived from mathematics. By teaching the logic of mathematics and of its development, the individual is provided the means to free the human CPU. This amounts to an increase in intelligence, from which both the individual and the State profit.
Mathematics is a specific evolutionary advantage of mankind. No other species has it. Each other species uses its advantages on a mass scale—only humans do not.
Communists talk too much: Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky, Mao, Hoxha have written many volumes—with contradictory results. Communist theory should be proved in simply words.
Best wishes.
G. Kroiss, Ph.D.
5. GOOD-BYE
On April 1, 2002, I handed over the INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR CRITICAL THINKING to my daughter Doris.
My whole effort, being truly non-profitable, was to save humankind. To solve this puzzle, drkroiss.com was developed. This difficult and thorny issue stayed puzzling until the solution revealed itself. Let me describe it.
About two thousand years ago, Germanic tribes invaded the Roman empire. They were led by tribal chieftains. Their wagon train took four days to pass. Its route was written in black = burnt and plundered houses and towns—and red = killed locals. At that time, when you saw a mass of foreigners, you had a good chance to be killed by them. That is the origin of racism. We are not out of these times yet. We still have tribal chieftains and racism.
However, we do not live in tribal times any more. People like Max Planck introduced new circumstances:
TODAY, IT MEANS TO BE OR NOT TO BE FOR OUR SPECIES.
Logic has two sides: If you apply it to numbers and geometric objects, you will get its mathematical side. However, logic also has another side, which is largely undeveloped, which is psychological. The chieftains never allowed this side of logic to be developed because it would have robbed them of their power.
DRKROISS.COM SERVES AS A STARTING POINT FOR OTHERS TO DEVELOP THE INTERACTION OF BOTH SIDES.
The suppression of the psychological side of logic globally lead to wide-spread stupidity in the chieftains, whom people brown-nose, and also in the general population.
Therefore, we are roughly in this situation:
Imagine several tribes of monkeys. The majority of them go about their usual business: Eating, fucking, sleeping, hoarding, and brown-nosing—while the chieftains play with a new kind of toy, namely hand grenades. How long do you think nothing is going to happen?